To attract foreign buyers, it advertised on Juwai.com (a Chinese website visible both inside and outside of that country) and hired a company to build a Chinese micro-site and create mobile advertising. It also hired a real estate agent in Hong Kong.

"There are two types of Chinese investors. There's the Chinese investor who buys a really big house here and moves his family here and the kids go to school and they commute. Right? And then there are the people investing in larger projects, really just the speculative type stuff," said May.

But May wasn't able to sell any Calgary properties to Chinese buyers.

Struggling Calgary condo market

May said she is cognizant of the impact foreign investment has had on markets in Vancouver and Toronto.

"It definitely hurt those markets in a way that has a social impact above and beyond just getting the house sold," she said. "That said, we were in a middle of a recession last year and in 2015. We were sitting on quite a bit of product. We have an obligation to do the best thing for our sellers. If local people aren't buying, what do we do?"